Making Music for Life

Sounds of multiple drums
filled the RISE office's large conference room on December 28-29,
2017. Mixed among those sounds were youth voices and laughter, as
well as a growing feeling of accomplishment. By the end of the
two-day session, the majority of the 25 students owned their own
completed hand drum.

James Marquez at the RISE program's drum
making class.

"I think people should
make hand drums because if you've got a drum, you can sing anywhere
you want," said Brian Frejo, the featured speaker and instructor
for the workshop. "You can sing in your living room, outside on
your porch or in your car."

Frejo, who is Pawnee and
Seminole, grew up in Moore, Okla. and now lives in Milwaukee, Wisc.
He combines his experiences with Native culture, hip hop and
entertainment media to speak to youth throughout the country about
making positive choices in life. Frejo's prior experience with RISE
includes serving as a DJ and guest speaker for the program's 3-on-3
basketball tournament on Oct. 28, 2017.

[Frejo] knows the
culture, whether that culture being Native American, culture being
this generation or culture being tied with music," said Justina
Prairiechief, the RISE program director. "He's used to doing
substance and alcohol abuse prevention and suicide prevention."

Beginning in 1992, Frejo
sang with Southern drums such as Rose Hill and Young Bird. By 1998,
a friend gave Frejo a hand drum. Eventually, he started to build
them, singing with them publicly by 2002. Now, teaching hand drum
workshops is one of the ways he reaches out to youth as a way to
teach life skills. One of the primary lessons involved with the
class is on how to listen.

Brian Frejo

"When you remember how to
listen, you can learn a lot and have an open mind," Frejo said.
"You can learn how to do anything. That's what I share with youth.
If you can make a hand drum, you can go out there and learn how to
do all kinds of things. It's a lot of work. It takes time to do
this…It's like anything else you want to do in your life. You
listen. You pay attention. You work hard. You're going to do this
from A to Z-all these steps it takes to get there."

In addition to gaining
confidence and listening skills, youth participants learned the
multiple steps in making a hand drum-soaking a hide, measuring and
punching holes, stretching and lacing the hide and making a drum
stick. Along with Frejo, RISE staff members Donnie Ramos, Rachael
Palmer and Durell Cooper also gave hands-on assistance to the
youth.

Frejo also emphasized the
spiritual importance behind the drum, ranging from the healing
nature of songs and praying with the drums to the choices of hides
such as elk, deer or buffalo.

"It's powerful," Frejo
said about the use of hand drums. "I've seen people lifted up-their
spirits lifted up, their physical selves lifted up through
ceremonies using these drums and these songs. Those animal spirits
are a part of it."

The drum making workshop
is one of a diverse range of workshops sponsored by RISE to meet
their suicide prevention demographic of ages 10-24. Based on
community surveys, cultural classes were one of the largest
requested outreach methods.

From left: Caleb Holman and Kevin Marquez
placing the finishing touches on their hand drums.

"We're trying to reach
all different kinds of people," Prairiechief said. "Before, we had
the basketball tournament. We've sponsored the football jerseys. We
did the Paint Party in case there were artists. We're trying to
reach all different demographics."

For Frejo, hand drums are
one of the many "ways that connect our people," he said, and that
"our young people need those positive factors and influences in
their life" as a way of suicide prevention.

"We're reconnecting them
back to their roots," Frejo said. "I believe through that, we can
overcome all of these challenges and obstacles that we face in
Indian Country. We want to see our young people live and enjoy
their life."